Friday, June 18, 2010

This is one of the best eggless cakes I have ever made. I got this recipe from Nirmala Aunty when I went to her house to interview her kids for a podcast I produce called Keeping the Beat.

After the interview, she showed me this wonderful recipe binder she had made for her children. I saw her dessert section was full of fantastic eggless recipes and I asked her to send them to me. I finally got a chance to try one out and it worked out beautifully. I can't wait to test out the rest of them.

This recipe has been adapted from her plain eggless cake recipe that is anything but plain. I decided to add in some summer fruits. One peeled, diced peach and a cup and a half of blueberries made this cake into a spectacular fruit-filled muffin. The cake has a nice milky flavour from the condensed milk and isn't too sweet. It is a moist but dense cake.

This has been a week full of celebrations. I had my graduation and my parents celebrated their 34th anniversary. It was also my friend June's birthday and I made these for her. This was the perfect sweet treat to mark a special occasion.

Instructions
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients by creating a hole in the middle of the flour with a spoon.
4. Add the wet ingredients, vanilla, butter, mango juice and condensed milk into the well.
5. Beat the mixture together with a hand mixer for about a minute. Use a spatula to scrape the sides to make sure all of the flour is incorporated.
6. Fold in the peaches and blueberries.
7. Grease the pan before pouring in the batter. Bake the mini muffins for 12 minutes. The loaf cake takes about 40 minutes to bake. This recipe made two batches of mini muffins (24 muffins total) and one loaf cake.
8. Take the muffins or loaf out of the pan after letting it cool for five minutes.

Feel free to use your favourite fresh or dry fruits in this recipe. Strawberries would be nice to top this cake with but is not good to bake with. It loses it's bright red colour when you put it in the oven.

To make this muffin in to a decadent cupcake, I topped it with a cream cheese icing and a sugar flower.

Instructions
1. Cream together butter and cream cheese with a hand mixer.
2. Add in vanilla and lime juice.
3. Slowly add in icing sugar until it forms a spreadable consistency.
This icing has a nice sweet and tangy flavour from the cream cheese and lime juice. It pairs well with the blueberries in the cake.

The flowers on top are made out of fondant. I used a flower cookie cutter and scored the petals with a special cake decorating tool. You can look here for more details. The flowers have an edible silver bead in the centre which can be bought at shops such as Bulk Barn.